For faster circular transition in consumer goods, appliances and the built environment.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Considering ambitious EU-wide circular transition targets of 2030 and 2050, the rise of shared economy and increasing awareness of circular economy (CE) principles worldwide; also amidst the mounting challenge of material consumption and associated material scarcity and emissions; efforts towards circular transition might have to start from most obvious like consumer goods, household appliances, interior design and architecture.

 
CONSUMER GOODS AND APPLIANCES –Circular practices in this sector include modular DIY replaceable components, industry-wide standardization, circular business model, shared economy (manufacturer/ supplier as product owner), new sharing platforms (including yet to be widely adopted by e-commerce giants), mainstreaming refurbished items, process heat recovery, community repair supported by diluted repair/ warranty contracts, creation of neighbourhood community repair centres and of course minimising packaging waste.

Additionally, what may be required in terms of achieving circularity in the appliance segment is to have a clear business plan and commitment from the manufacturing industry for the second and third life of the product; open learning platform for DIY community repairs, integrating basic DIY and vocational training in school and university curriculum, recognition of second, third and fourth life products as formal subcategories under each (applicable) product code in the national and EXIM industrial product code database among others.

ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN – Here CE may include statutory mandate for circular procurement of material and finishes, compulsory fixed percentage use of bio-based material, harvested and localised materials in all building categories (budget to luxury), incentives (percentage slabs) to encourage refurbished/ upcycled finishing and furnishing, process heat capture mechanism, modularity in the built environment to minimize residual waste products and better end of life usage, new business models including new partnerships, emerging roles and new skill sets.

Additionally, what may be required in achieving circularity in architecture and interior design is to have a community material bank for storing harvested components from neighbourhood renovation projects with the provision of material passport, neighbourhood material donation/ exchange bank, also eventually eliminating construction and demolition waste altogether from the waste stream, the establishment of national/ regional material R&D and material innovation centres specifically focusing on second/ third/ fourth life composite construction, finish and furnishing materials and products among others.

Author: Anoop Jha

[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#circulareconomy #biobasedmaterial #sharedeconomy #architecture #Industry #industrialpolicy #infrastructure #interiordesign #circulartransition #hague #Rotterdam #Utrecht #Delft #leiden #Netherlands 

What may be missing in the way we plan and discuss cities?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Taking example of a street

Lets see the possible levels of articulation of urban streets, in increasing order of sensitivity/ relevance. It is noteworthy that city administration in different parts of world simetimes choose to stop at any given stage of sensitivity depending on their statutory mandate, resource and motivation.

1. Basic street or road design, that can simply be achieved by adhering to standard engineering practices (dry, wet underground/ surface utility), following road design code book, following landuse regulations, and following design standards for different hierarchy of roads. Above is mostly possible without traffic modelling, without bespoke landscape design input and even in absence of urban design guideline.

2. Further, a good street design can be considered one that takes traffic modelling into consideration. Street that has urban design guideline in place and follows streetscape guidelines, also one that utilises tailored landscape, street art, street activation etc.

3. A better street design is possibly one that follows emerging good practices of low impact development, blue-green infrastructure design principles, urban heat island mitigation measures, rewilding, wind flow and shadow analysis etc.

4. Even better street design is the one that takes context into consideration i.e., adjoining laduse typology based activity intensity, local community needs, user ability and comfort, recreational needs, prioritization of road users including hierarchy of transit modes, adapting activity over the day.

5. Also those streets that considers, safe way to school, vision zero, disaster preparedness etc.

6. Then there are those streets which consider reclaiming rights of certain types of users (sometimes bottom up and radical),

7. Further there are those streets which are adapting itself to autonomous and EV transit regime, predictive monitoring, IOT based experience, AI algorithm, VR utilities, and ground for ML,

8. Also there are those which just started to consider following elements in street design, like psychological impact of street on different demography, perception by cultural groups, adapting streets to different demographic traits (age, gender), equity etc.

9. Then also those streets which may be adapted to requirements of wider spectrum of special needs and aspirations of previously subdued and unrecongnised social strata.

Realising the complexity and granularity that may exist in design of a street (and cities in general), seems that the current narrative, discourse and debate on street (and cities), still remains quite fragmented. A broader outlook and comprehensive approach may help plan better.

Author: Anoop Jha

[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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#urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

What could be the barometer to know if a city is doing well?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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You may be able to figure out if a city or even country is doing somewhat well for community and visitors alike, by observing or experiencing some of following traits.

If you are feeling safe at all time of the day and night in a city. That may mean, your anxiousness doesn't increases (as a function of safety perception) as the night approaches. That is possible when you know there is next bus, tram, metro or train to make sure you reach your eventual destination, and if you could remain assured, that you can be rescued from an unsafe or unwarranted situation.

If you are still able to make sense of place any hour of day and night. That may mean, you are able to orient yourself in space and time throughout the day and night, at any location within city. That is possible when space is easily legible and well illuminated, for you to spatially position yourself in any part of city.

Making city work well is a constant quest for city administrations, urban planners, researchers and many. Targeting above may be a good starting point for any city, as there is always scope of making things good to better and more.

Author: Anoop Jha

[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha/

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#urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Delft #Eindhoven #Rotterdam

Possibly solution to city's space and resource scarcity is within city limits itself!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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POPULATION AND DENSITY

How many people can peacefully and respectfully coexist within one Square Kilometer of a city without compromising on functionality and respectable individual social space. You have empirical examples and you can also make a simulation model of maximum density case scenario including residential, working and transitory population. Acknowledging that population density is never a correct indicator of quality of life. Acknowledging that 2 dimensional approach of population density should be revisited to include 3rd dimension as more and more people are being accommodated vertically, and as more and more utilities, mobility, asset, cargo can be accommodated underground in coming times.

CONSTRUCTION

How much Built Up Area (BUA) a City can technically hold within one Sqkm, given the limitation of existing construction technology, available sustainable material of choice and considering requirements of structural stability. You can build and test scenarios and models based on type of landuse including mixeduse case and you can also make digital twin/ BIM/vGIS model to check if model is workable as habitable. Acknowledging that Hong kong style housing was never an ideal architectural concept of creating more built-up area in a city and it was only a technological and financial constraint. Rather imagine constructing a Cubic Km of monolith Real Estate including private and public space like a perforated Swiss Cheese in form of space frame as a maximum BUA case scenarios.

BIODIVERSITY

How much Biotic Diversity in terms of native regional flora, fauna and wild meadows can be accommodated in a Cubic km of City along with humans without overwhelming, compromising or competing for space and other resources considering their growh rate. Acknowledging that way too much of biodiversity in a city was never a good idea, like some exotic species leading to biodiversity nuisance and like beehive on every corporate office and public buildings leading to severe pollination issues.

SUSTAINABILITY AND SELF-RELIANCE

How much self sustainability a Cubic km of city can achieve in terms of it's own

1) Food security,

2) Energy needs

3) Waste load management and

4) Water security, through range of means-

1.a) Urban agricultural, edible landscape, Food forest, community seed bank, school seed bank, vertical farm, rooftop greenhouse, bush food experience, kitchen garden, aquaponic, hydroponics, aeroponic, doomsday vault, extended shelf life solutions-

2.b) Energy education, energy aware lifestyle, energy conservation by design, interventions and appliances, energy load management, IoT and edge devices, building energy load management through solar passive architecture, building insulation/ ventilation, harvesting and storing energy from sun, wind, algae, river, stream, canal, organic waste; biofuels, heat recovery from process and thermal storage, Air Source Heat Pump/ ASHP, open window detection, micro turbine-

3.c) Waste reduction, circular waste economy, recycling, reuse, upcycle, repurpose, near zero construction waste,

4.d) Water conservation, treated sewage effluent, waste water treatment, IOT Sensors, water saving appliances, precision agriculture, mist irrigation, water from air condensation, extracting drinking water from air and others, flood water harvesting, storm water retention basin, cloud seeding,.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #sustainability 

Burden and footprint of Packaging; a fair share of it can be avoided!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Ready to consume edible products packed and collected or delivered to doorstep (burger for instance) still leaving substantial and growing inorganic packaging residual for good, as more and more people placing order online.

Edible products with little shelf life (Juice for instance) consumed or expired soon leaving it's packaging footprint mostly local but forever or for too long. Consumers must be informed that such products don't suddenly gets expired one fine day, give them the range and chart stating how consistency and taste may get compromised over time still in consumable range, also tell them how to increase shelf life.

Non-edible products coming with shelf life and consumed in numbers ( Shampoo for instance), have regional, sometimes national packaging waste footprint. Mostly delivered across regions by e-commerce websites.

Non perishable products having only expiry date wrt trend (shoes for instance) and consumed in bulk witnesses global packaging waste footprint.

Then there are another kind of packaging waste burden i. e. where individual or collective packaging weight and/or volume is rather more or many fold of product/s inside, and having huge market. (Gift hampers, festive gifts etc. for instance). In this category higher you go up towards luxury segment more wastage is witnessed.

Bulk packaging is being excluded from the discussion as they have relatively organised supply-collection chain and higher recycling percentage.

Author:Anoop Jha

#waste #urbanplanning #packagingwaste #landfill #recycling #swm #municipal #msw

Cities within city!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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These metropolitan cities are so big that many inhabitants spend their entire life without the need of visiting few other parts of city for any purpose be it business, socialising or recreation, and when they do visit that other part of same city for the first time, it's sometimes not less than a shocking experience, pleasant or otherwise - experiencing drastic change in built-up scale, a very distinct manifestation of architectural style, a juxtapose density, visible economic stratification, attitudinal and behavioural changes are observed, obvious difference in level of upkeep, city beautification and public services, varying degree of management witnessed, sometimes changes witnesses in regulatory enforcement, citizen compliance and level of citizen engagement; difference in lifestyle, life choices and opportunity landscape is worth noticing as well.

Several forces are at play here making different part of city very different in appeal and experience, like - chronology of development, different developmental vision for different city zones in an effort to create specialised nodes, different economic activity and status.

Silver-lining; Heterogeneity and diversity in a large metropolitan city was never an outdated idea, additionally possibility of intracity excursion and tourism is there. Learning opportunity from each other is also there. A city with multitude of experience is always welcoming anyways.

In all likelihood it can be safely assumed that there is critical mass in terms of a chunk of city with a cluster of habitation and segment of economy which makes it autonomous in many senses, making it a small city within a larger metropolitan, and metropolitan city can be perceived as agglomeration of several such smaller cities, of course huddled together with a symbiotic relationship.

Author:Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #cityplanning #townplanning #habitat #urban #smartcity #cluster #neighborhood

Decoding architectural and urban planning profession, mannerism and dimensions!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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How architects and urban planners possibly think, what all they encounter? What are the key challenges of profession?

Architects and urban planners are usually creative, imaginative, and practical enough to almost dwell at the border of science and philosophy. They often like to draw analogy, parallel and similarity, find harmony and juxtaposition, search for patterns, logic and inspiration, build complex compositions while capable of offering even more complex explanation of same, articulate subtle thoughts, envision rare possibilities and more; meanwhile juggling between, functionality, aesthetics and feasibility; which most of the time remains a trade-off. Their works also have to qualify on aspirations of range of stakeholder and users, today and in centuries to come; work that should also withstand test of time, finding continued relevance, facing weather, disaster, praise and criticism alike.

Sometimes, rather many a times architects and urban planners operate on different scales, but their quest and creative search remains similar, i.e., creating something for people, community; something that is functional, aesthetic, comforting and nostalgic; but also within reach and viable; may be complex but also abstract enough to be explained to and understood by all.

Architects and urban planners sometimes draw similarity between human and architecture, and between human and city, as possibly human, being the most complex functional entity. A vast and complex subject as it is, has equally vast challenging regime, where half of world may not be having proper access to architectural services, neither having means, representation or entitlement, searching from the pool of architects who don’t even exist today; Similarly scores of unauthorised settlements, suburban villages and small towns in different parts of world, big or complex enough to qualify for a city title, having little awareness, resources and empowerment, to have timely access to urban planning services.

Architectural and urban planning profession has been that way since quite few decades, that is asymmetric in its services and reach, no less than economic or digital divide; also characteristic of juxtaposition, from the epitome of expression and demonstration at one end to the absolute absence of same on other end.

What’s going on now and what’s the way forward? Increasingly resource gap is being filled, awareness within, and about architecture and urban planning is growing, architectural and planning services are increasingly reaching to areas of cities and areas beyond cities which remained unattended in past, and increasingly serving the remote parts of world.

Author: Anoop Jha

Architect Planner

#urbanplanning #architecture #smartcity #Delhi #Mumbai #India #Africa #Europe #EU #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

With possibilities of real-time response, universal payment etc. today there should be a far better public transport pricing mechanism!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The following may be true for a range of cities across the world.

When it comes to public transport of all kinds, while the process of ticketing and payment methods and modes have seen a lot of innovation, driven by technology over the past years and decades, but there seems to have been little innovation in the pricing mechanism of public transport ticketing.

When we think of ease and equity of population, but you still see the same decade or so old handful of deferred pricing mechanism like tourist ticket, day ticket, regular passenger discount pass, off-peak hour discount, and maybe age bracket discount. This is so outdated, while you can possibly charge on a scale from one percent to hundred percent of the ticket price (still honoring various categories of tickets mentioned above) based on the real-time occupancy level of the specific bus, tram, etc. at any given time, still running a profitable venture.

The pricing mechanism which is actually one of the most important affairs of the public transport sphere and which directly touches the lives of millions has remained static while everything else about public transport has changed mostly through technology, it's surprising.

Root cause, no authority or transport service provider would like to run the risk of changes in projected revenue from public transport for instance. Even if it means losing out on big profit possibilities (for both parties), as there is comfort in known! 

City is a unique place. You see scores of vacant unsold houses in many cities and you also see those struggling to buy own house and those homeless on the streets, all in the same city.

You also see in a city, public transport of different kinds, many a time running partially or near empty on one or many occasions of day, on one and many stretches of the city, every single day and over the years, and you see people who are not allowed to board these near vacant public transport modes without paying a pre-fixed price or pre-decided discounted price and hence you also don’t see the latent flux of people you could have seen otherwise if authority or transport service provider would have allowed them to board the public transport on a fraction of standard or discounted ticket price i.e., as low as 1% to 5% to 10% or other of the standard ticket price, as a function of public transport occupancy level. Just because no one wants to do the math, both parties are at loss including operators and users. 

Now considering baseline criteria as public transport quality is good, everyone uses a multimodal touch-and-go payment card and payment is made inside or at the entry of the transport system say tram, bus, (possibly LRT, Metro, train as well) etc.

Now if we use embedded sensors inside tram and bus (and possibly metro and LRT) for instance calculate the occupancy of this particular bus or tram at any given moment and allowing real-time adjustments in ticket prices for "this particular" bus or tram to the extent i.e., near vacant tram or bus means near zero ticket price (as the operator is anyways getting zero if the system is running empty, even marginal profit over business as usual is still a profit), hence pricing will keep changing for every next rider, mostly lower than typical pricing and never exceeding the standard ticket pricing, also prompting more people to board the tram or bus if they see it running at lower occupancy, knowing that they will have to pay lower or just fraction. Apps can provide such projected pricing reduction information about any particular route in real-time to prospective travelers. If we tailor the existing transport system through upgrade or retrofit and adopt a real-time pricing mechanism at this granular level powered by tech (e.g., sensor fusion, etc) both transit service providers and citizens will be winner in terms of benefits and savings respectively, and it will help people switch from private to public transport, a much desired ”model shift”.   

So real issue and opportunity is how to deal with occupancy level for (sometimes mutual) benefit of supplier and consumer?

Occupancy is a wonderful tool!

The hospitality industry learned this long back and hence early bird and last-minute discounts. The rental market is already thriving on this in some places. Aviation also leveraging it somewhat. Taxi services learned the other way around, how to inflate the price 2X or 4X or more through congestion charges. The public transit segment world over is still lagging far behind wrt innovation on real-time occupancy-based pricing (for price reduction not increase) with the unimaginable potential using real-time pricing adjustment mechanism with help of sensors and other connected technology.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #transportplanning #its #intelligent #trafficmanagement #policy #surveillance #databreach #ml #machinelearning #iot #delhi #mumbai #india #camera #urbanmanagement #urbandeveloent #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven  #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

 

Its poised time for city administrations and urban management and development professionals.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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It’s interesting to recognise how empowered a city administration can be today to take evidence-based decisions, depending on what kind of, how recent, and what level of access to information they have in their city dashboard; compared to few decades ago when decisions about “urban future” used to mostly get made in closed board rooms and on literal mechanical drawing boards; mostly based on past trends, white papers, fancy of the creative class, administrative zeal, and sometimes based on intuition.

To draw a parallel of insufficiency that old times had, imagine the great architects and planners of history who somehow still managed to deliver all the job old school way, in absence of now integral and pervasive modern survey and modelling tools like satellite imagery, Geographic Information System (#GIS), #LIDAR, #DGPS, #drones, Building Information Modelling (#BIM), #TrafficSimulation and #CrowdManagement software, structural, hydraulic, lighting and range of #EnvironmentalModelling software, including some more which are still taking shape and trying to find widespread application in urban management and development including #DigitalTwin, #ParametricDesign, #AI and #ML.

Technology and data combined (proliferation of data, universal access to technology and open data) has not just minimised the information asymmetry between public and private entities but has also provided a level play field for urban professionals in different parts of world. It has been a journey from then “private entities educating city administrations about how to approach urban problems” to now “city administrations finally resourceful enough to ask ‘why this and not that’ while increasingly interrogative private entities about checks and balances of ethical practices they follow (e.g., data anonymity). Technology and information have made this journey possible from “just a handful” in history to “so many” great young architects and planners who exist today for instance. Technology and wider access to information (data) have made possible the faster diffusion of creativity today and also created an abundance of highly skilled manpower including multi-disciplinary urban managers, at the same time minimising the gap between low-skilled and highly skilled professionals.

As urban problems have become more and more complex and wicked, access to tools, resources, and technology to manage these problems has also become sophisticated and widely available today. There wasn’t a more promising time ever than today in the area of urban management and development.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #delhi #mumbai #gurugram #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands